Set in the Present Day, the players have access to a variety of modern careers and weapons - any weapon, religion, nationality or anything else that exists on modern-day Earth can be used in-game. Optional Sourcebooks expanded the game to cover any post-medieval setting, from the Renaissance to the far future.

Core Modern: "Realistic" modern Earth. There are no monsters, no magic—whether you work for a crime syndicate or spy ring, mercenary outfit or the local police, or are just some kid straight out of high school, it's all up to you.

Shadow Chasers: In this game mode, inspired by shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, normal Dungeons & Dragons monsters roam the earth. These beings, known as Shadow Creatures, came here from alternate worlds. They have no memory of life before they arrived, and depending on their personalities, they either settle down and get a job or need to be exterminated by the player characters. In this world, most of the human population has a built-in Weirdness Censor, and can't see Shadow Creatures for what they are. A normal person would look at an Ogre and see a tall man, or look at a Dragon and see a small Chinese man (a definite case of not judging a book by its cover). Players are capable of seeing these creatures for what they really are, and work for a secret organization that hunts them down. Most characters fight monsters with conventional weapons only, though the Occultist advanced class allows Smart Heroes and villains to tap into the arcane powers of magic. But the monsters must also rely on conventional weapons; you have seen nothing as cool as a dragon with a rocket launcher.

Agents of PSI: Magic does not exist, only Psionics. Psionics are Psychic Powers possessed by certain people that allow them to use special abilities, either in the traditional "read minds and make things float" sense, or through various forms of technopathy. You can psychically merge with your car so that it becomes an extension of yourself, or surf the net by downloading your mind into it. You work for a shadowy organization that identifies and deals with those who would use these powers for evil.

Urban Arcana: The classic Dungeons & Dragons, in a modern setting. The character classes and weapons are the same as the basic Modern system, but a variety of new classes are available. There are two categories of magic-users, Mages, based off the D&D Mage, and Acolytes, based off the D&D Priest. However, these have a modern spin; for instance, calling someone on the phone allows a mage to teleport down the phone lines, and the right electricity spell can interfere with your enemies' mobile phones. You can be an Acolyte of whatever D&D god you fancy, or an Acolyte of Christ or Vishnu. Like Shadow Chasers, monsters have somehow crossed the void from classic D&D worlds into our own, and a Weirdness Censor prevents most of humanity from noticing, so it's up to the players to deal with them. In this world, it's just as likely that the CEO of a large company is a gold dragon as a human. Why would a mob boss use a human as a henchman when a cave troll is more loyal? There are several factions that the player can work for or against. Department-7 is a magical organization that works for human interests (but whose biggest backer just happens to be a dragon). The Corsone crime syndicate works as a front for Shadows to gain control of the human underworld. The Fraternal Order of Vigilance is a human supremacist group who hunt Shadows, and the Black Feathers are a group of eco-terrorists run by elves. Arcana has become the most popular of the D20 settings for its mix of modern weapons and fantastical elements, or, as one gamer once put it, "Dude, Uzis and fireballs!" Along with Dark•Matter, it's the only specific campaign model to receive a sourcebook all to itself.

Dark Matter: An update of the Dark•Matter campaign setting first published in 1999 for TSR's Alternity RPG (itself an adaptation of 2nd edition D&D rules to non-fantasy settings), this is a world where every lunatic conspiracy theory is true. There really are psychic gray aliens abducting humans and mutilating cattle. The Illuminati really are working to bring the entire world under their control. Bigfoot? He's out there too. And The Government is covering it all up. The players are field agents for the shadowy private organization known as the Hoffman Institute, devoted to investigating the activities of psychics, cultists, and "xenoforms" and protecting humankind from the tide of dark matter seeping into the fabric of the universe that's the ultimate cause of all things paranormal.

Additionally, d20 Future spawned two sub-sourcebooks detailing games based on specific sci-fi genres: d20 Apocalypse for post-apocalyptic campaigns and d20 Cyberscape for Cyber Punk, as well as d20 Future Tech, an add-on with additional rules for gizmos, gadgets, and other cool science-fictiony technology to fill up your inventory.

Like the core d20 Modern rulebook, d20 Future and its spin-offs suggested specific campaign models:

Dimension X: You work for an organization charged with monitoring various Alternate Universes, searching for a way to stem the tide of an approaching Armageddon that's destroying The Multiverse one dimension at a time.

Mecha Crusade: War engulfs the solar system! Hot-Blooded heroes clash in mighty mecha! A setting inspired by sci-fi anime, first published in Polyhedron magazine #154 and adapted for the d20 Future hardcover.

Star*Drive: In the wake of a galactic war, humans and aliens spin elaborate treaties while working to rebuild their world. Meanwhile, a new, implacable race of buglike aliens from a far-off star system ravages fringe worlds and threatens the galaxy's stability. Like Dark•Matter, Star*Drive was originally published in the '90s as an Alternity setting, and updated with d20 rules.

Star Law: You're a space cop out to bring law and order to the baddest planets in the galaxy. Loosely based on TSR's Star Frontiers RPG from the 1980s.

The Wasteland: It's After the End and Earth is a ruin. You and the rest of humanity struggle to survive in the nuclear waste while fending off savage mutants and power-hungry marauders. This model inspired the d20 Apocalypse book.

d20 Apocalypse:

Earth Inherited: The Rapture has come to pass, the righteous whisked off to Heaven and the evil consigned to Hell, and those who remain bear witness to earthly battle between legions of angels and demons. But the gates of Heaven and Hell have closed, and angel and demon alike are trapped on Earth with us. Inspired by the Left Behind novels, but less sectarian (i.e., not only Christians were raptured).

Atomic Sunrise: Similar to but more developed than the "Wasteland" campaign model from d20 Future, a nuclear holocaust has destroyed 95% of the human race, sending the survivors back to a new Dark Age. Dozens of power groups struggle to determine the fate of the human race.

Plague World: Aliens invade the Earth, but mess it up. In the wake of the vast bio-engineered mutagenic plague unleashed by the invaders to wipe out Earth's civilization, the aliens themselves succumb to their own weapons and degenerate into mindless beasts. Meanwhile, the heroes, soldiers put in suspended animation at the start of the war, awake to a world blown back to the Iron Age.

d20 Cyberscape:

CyberRave: In a world of capitalism and government intrusion gone mad, a new subculture of street ravers fight against the system. Cybernetic implants are commonplace, the Internet has evolved into the full-immersion VRNet, and information is the ultimate commodity.

d20 Past

d20 Past explores RPG settings from every time period from the Renaissance up to the Cold War, acting as a sort of bridge between Dungeons & Dragons and the main d20 Modern setting. From sailing the seven seas in the age of exploration to stalking the streets of Victorian London to kicking Nazi ass in World War II, the d20 Past sourcebook includes rules for pre-modern weapons and vehicles as well as more fantastic story elements such as sea serpents, pulp super-science, and Jekyll-and-Hyde monsters.

Following the example set by d20 Future, d20 Past suggests a few specific campaign models:

Age of Adventure: Swashbuckling deeds of daring in 16th and 17th centuries, inspired by explorers like Sir Francis Drake and authors like Alexandre Dumas. The setting can take you from intrigue in the court of King Louis XIV to the hideouts of vile pirates on the Spanish Main. Sea serpents, ghouls, and wicked sorcerers lurk beyond the edges of the map.

Shadow Stalkers: d20 Modern's "Shadow Chasers" campaign transported back to the late 1800s. You can rub shoulders with Sherlock Holmes in London, fight cattle rustlers in The Wild West, or explore the tombs of the ancients in Egypt. Vampires, mummies, werewolves, and other monsters lurk in the corners of society's eyes and shady occultists help or hinder you in your adventures.

Pulp Heroes: Inspired by novels and movies written or set in the 1920s to the 1950s, from Tarzan to The Maltese Falcon to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. You might go up against Chicago gangsters, Hong Kong drug cartels, Those Wacky Nazis, or even little green men from Mars. This setting was originally published in Polyhedron magazine #149 and spruced up for d20 Past.

Other Settings

In addition to the books listed above, a few other campaign models were suggested for d20 Modern, mostly in the pages of Polyhedron magazine:

Omega World: A post-apocalyptic world gone mad, filled with human explorers and deadly mutants. Inspired by the classic Gamma World RPG. Published in Polyhedron #153 and incorporated into d20 Apocalypse.

V for Victory: Hard-bitten heroes taking on the Nazi menace. A game of World War II combat published in Polyhedron #156, later incorporated into d20 Past.

HiJinx: Published in Polyhedron #158, this scenario takes the "kids in a rock band" formula of '70s and '80s cartoons (Josie and the Pussycats, Jem, etc.) and throws in a healthy dose of turn-of-the-millennium self-awareness and irony. Players race to go platinum while getting into wacky misadventures with mobsters, robots, and aliens.

Iron Lords of Jupiter: Mixing elements of d20 Future and d20 Past, this setting draws on pulp Planetary Romance stories like John Carter of Mars. It turns out that Jupiter actually has a solid surface under all those clouds (and miraculously has an oxygen-rich atmosphere and gravity low enough for humans to survive there) and is home to numerous alien races with Bronze Age technology. The players may be humans shipwrecked on the planet or members of the local civilizations. Published in Polyhedron #160.

d20 Spectaculars: A book planned to be published in 2006, d20 Spectaculars would have given rules for playing superheroes, but it was canceled and never saw the light of day. It may have been because d20 Modern's sales were slipping, because they decided supers didn't fit with the rest of the line, or because Mutants & Masterminds already provided a d20 superhero game that was compatible with d20 Modern with a little rules-tweaking. The start of the work on 4th Edition might have had something to do with it, too.

This Game Provides Examples Of:

Action Bomb: In Urban Arcana, The spell Resist Energy (concussion) allows you to take 120 points of concussion damage without getting hurt before it gets discharged. Explosives deal Concussion damage. When you combine the two...

Bling-Bling-BANG!: There is a simple rule for it: for an extra cost, you can get an item with luxury features (that do nothing in game terms). So it is possible to buy gold plated guns, although they are more expensive and have the same effects as a normal gun.

Double Tap: A feat having this exact name allows you to deal +1 die of damage with an attack made with a semi automatic weapon if you take a -2 penalty to your attack roll. It requires two bullets in the magazine to use, obviously.

Escape Artist: There is a skill called "Escape Artist" allowing a character to become exactly that.

Incendiary Exponent: A Tough Hero with 22 Constitution and the Energy Resistance (Fire) talent can shrug off being on fire, since being on fire inflicts 1D6 fire damage per round, and the character described above has Fire resistance 6.

Also, in Urban Arcana, the Fortify incantation seed can be used to grant an Inherent (read: permanent and stackable with everything else) bonus up to +5 to any energy resistance type (and can be used more times to apply to all of them). It means that, on average, a character on fire looses 1 Hit Point every 6 rounds.

Outside-the-Box Tactic: In Urban Arcana, Resist Energy (Concussion) is a spell allowing the target to absorb 120 points of damage from explosives without getting hurt. It is most often used to resist hostile explosives, but it allows someone to blow himself up with a few blocks of C-4 and ending up unharmed, unlike his unfortunate targets...

The Paladin: The Holy Knight from Urban Arcana is basically a modern paladin, trading his shining armor for a forced entry unit, his tower shield for a riot shield, his sword for a shock baton, and not needing to be lawful.

Pop the Tires: Defied in the setting Urban Arcana with two vehicular magic items, the Reinflating Tires, reinflating once and only once when they get punctured, and the Impervious Tires, which are tires possessing a hardness of 20 (In Layman's Terms, they can resist .44 Magnum bullets.)

Prestige Class: Two different tiers, the "Advanced Classes" that require multiple levels in at least one base class but are usually accessible at low levels, and "Prestige Classes" that require levels in advanced classes.

Pretentious Latin Motto: The Fellowship in Urban Arcana has "E Umbra Fiat Lux" ("Let there be light on the shadow.")

Rare Guns: The core book has the requisite Desert Eagle and .44 Magnum, and Future has stats for the OICW.

Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The Fraternal Order of Vigilance from the Urban Arcana setting, dedicated to wipe out shadow from the face of the Earth.

Sniper Pistol: In d20 Future, you can get one of those with the Gadget System. By applying the Compact Gadget followed by the Miniaturized gadget, you can reduce a sniper rifle to pistol size. Such a weapon uses expensive custom made miniaturized ammo though.

Supernatural Phone: The Eldritch Cell Phone, which can contact any person's phone without needing the number, or even call the phone nearest to the person if they don't have one of their own. It also has magical encryption and protection against tracing.

Weirdness Censor: A central concept in Shadow Chasers and Urban Arcana: most muggles cannot see the supernatural for what it is, and instead keep finding more rational explanations for what happens around them. A fireball becomes a gas leak, an orc becomes a malformed human, and so on.

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